Hike in stipend: Day 3: PU dental students refuse to budge, kickstart hunger strike

Chandigarh, November 3

The protest for a hike in stipend by students of BDS and MDS courses of Dr Harvansh Singh Judge Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Panjab University, entered the third day today.

As a result, the Gate No. 1 of the campus remained closed. The students decided to launch a chain hunger strike during which two students will sit on the daylong protest on a rotational basis. “We will wait till Monday afternoon for the authorities to respond. In case of no response, we will launch an indefinite hunger strike,” said Rajan, a protester. Two third-year students — Ranmeekjot Kaur and Rajan — sat on a hunger strike on Friday.

One of the students said, “The protest will continue overnight with seniors and juniors taking turns.”

Earlier, Prof Hemant Batra, head of the dental institute, reached the protest site on Thursday night to acknowledge the students’ demand. Even as he tried to assure them of all possible help, the students asked for a tentative date by which their issue would be resolved. His response to the question was, “If I am trying to address this problem, it doesn’t mean you will now start pressuring me.”

The PU authorities claim dental courses are self-financed and as such, funds cannot be expected from them or the UT Administration. To this, students respond if teachers could get salaries on a par with their counterparts in government institutes, then the government should cater to them as well.

The protesters claimed they had been receiving a stipend between Rs 9,000 and Rs 10,000 per month since 2009. They said it was much lower than their peers in other institutes. The MBBS interns at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, get a stipend of Rs 26,500 per month, they claimed.